Article dispensing – With recorder – register – indicator – signal or exhibitor – Empty source indicating means
Patent
1998-02-23
1999-10-12
Noland, Kenneth W.
Article dispensing
With recorder, register, indicator, signal or exhibitor
Empty source indicating means
221271, G07F 1100
Patent
active
059643730
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to dispenser apparatus for use in retail outlets and the like for vending or dispensing discrete articles, or discretely packaged articles, such as packets of cigarettes or confectionery and other packaged items.
Dispenser apparatus is known whereby packages or articles arranged one-behind-another on a trackway are spring biassed to bring a leading one of the packages to a dispensing station at a leading end of the trackway. When the package at the dispensing station is removed the spring moves up the remaining packages so that a next one becomes accessible at the dispensing station.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,738,881 discloses in FIG. 3 of the Drawings and in the related description an arrangement in which the articles to be dispensed are arranged on a spring-loaded trackway. However a drawback of this and other known dispensers of a similar kind is that there is no way of readily determining, from a position in front of the device, how many articles remain on the trackway. In use the dispenser may be on a shelf at or above eye-level, the trackway extending in the front-to-back direction of the shelf. In this situation the view of articles behind the dispensing station is obstructed by the article at the dispensing station, so that it is not easy to see how many articles remain or indeed whether the article at the dispensing station may be the last one. Shopkeepers will appreciate a way of easily monitoring the state of charge of individual dispensers, to avoid articles being sold from the dispenser running out while in demand. Re-charging of the dispensers is of course best carried out when they are not in use, such as when the shop is closed.
An object of the present invention is to improve upon known dispensing apparatus of this kind.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided apparatus for dispensing discrete articles arranged one-behind-another, the apparatus comprising an elongated, flexible conveyor means having first and second runs which change direction about roller means in the region of said dispensing station, means biassing the second run to tend to draw the first run toward the dispensing station so that, with said articles in contact with said first run, when a leading article is removed from the dispensing station, the remaining articles will be moved incrementally toward the dispensing station, the first run of the conveyor means applying traction to all of said remaining articles, stop means being positioned to arrest said leading article at the dispensing station pending its removal, characterised in that the conveyor means is visible where it changes direction about said roller means from a position on the side of the dispensing station remote from said first run of the conveyor means and in that the conveyor means has indicator means on the surface thereof exposed to view at the dispensing station which indicator means varies along the length of the conveyor means such as to provide at the dispensing station a means of visually monitoring the length of the first run of the conveyor means and thus the number of articles remaining on or in the apparatus after one or more articles have been removed therefrom.
Said indicator means may comprise markings along the length of the conveyor means which are successively revealed as said articles are removed at the dispensing station.
The markings may comprise numbers which have a spacing along the conveyor means generally equal to the thickness of the individual articles, whereby a number visible at the dispensing station indicates the number of articles remaining on the conveyor means.
The indicator means may comprise a marking which diverges across the conveyor means away from the dispensing station such that the width of said marking where exposed at the dispensing station indicates how much of the first run of the conveyor means remains extending from the dispensing station.
The runs of the conveyor means may have distal ends, that of the first run being connected to follower or pusher means upstanding from the c
REFERENCES:
patent: 2738881 (1956-03-01), Michel
patent: 5190186 (1993-03-01), Yablans et al.
patent: 5199599 (1993-04-01), Shade
ATL Associates Limited
Noland Kenneth W.
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